Among men’s health topics circulating around social media over the last few years, semen retention makes up the largest portion of content across both TikTok and Instagram. It also had the most engagement and the least amount of qualified experts weighing in. Clearly, something about it is resonating with a staggering number of people on the internet. Or triggering deep fascination, revulsion, and/or curiosity.
So, what is semen retention all about? Why did it suddenly start becoming a thing? Is it helpful? Is it harmful? Is this just for cis dudes, or can this be generalised to other gender groups?
Let’s dive into why men’s health discussions are so dominated by this particular form of self-restraint.
Supernatural claims
Why would someone decide to stop the spunk? Supposedly, abstaining from ejaculation is the secret sauce, if you will, to a myriad of benefits. Proponents of semen retention claim everything from improved mental focus, creativity, and energy to sexual and financial success. I even found claims to immortality!
Many posts suggest that semen retention increases testosterone levels, enhances fertility, and reduces erectile dysfunction. There are claims of increased muscle growth, clearer skin, and thicker hair. Improved sleep and sexual performance are also often cited, as well as more intensity when they finally do pop off.
With so many supposed benefits, no wonder there’s interest! But where did this idea even come from? Let’s crack this nut!
Ancient mysticism
The origins of this practice are often attributed to Taoist and Tantric practices. Indeed, both of these traditions support the practice of generating sexual energy and then redirecting it away from their disco sticks.
In Taoism, life force energy is generated through sexual union and, with proper instruction and practice, can be transformed into another form of energy that can be used to nourish and revitalise the body. The history of this practice stretches back to 400 BC and has been translated, altered, and misinterpreted many times since. The original wisdom may be preserved among some experts, but it’s difficult to know exactly how this was meant to be done.
In Tantra, orgasm is seen as a similar state to a meditative “no mind” state of consciousness. As with other forms of meditation, the goal is to prolong that state of consciousness as long as possible. Shooting your load is a surefire way of ending it, so there is an emphasis in delaying it. Root chakra energy is powerful, and tantric yogis often sit in Siddhasana, a pose where the heel is pressed into the perineum, redirecting energy up through the chakras while possibly also cutting off circulation to your balls.
But these are ancient practices that have been around for millennia. Why so much interest now? Let’s splooge into more recent history.
NoFap Movement
Back in 2011, a Reddit post went viral claiming that abstinence from masturbation and pornography brought about increased energy, focus, and mood changes. A couple of years later, the subreddit dedicated to the topic had gained so many followers that it became necessary to migrate the community to a new platform, and thus NoFap.com was born.
Since then, the community has grown to more than 350,000 members and even includes women (though admittedly not very many). The site serves as a support group for those battling online sex addiction, but the founder might have bitten off more than he could chew. Users tend to spew all sorts of conspiracy theories, and the community tends to be supported by far-right, religious fundamentalists who hold misogynistic and often racist views.
No Nut November (NNN) gained popularity on social media in 2017, and by 2018, accusations of being co-opted by the far right started to take hold. The Reddit subs nearly tripled by the following year. What started out as a resource for men to recover from porn addiction in the community had become a space where far more sinister ideas took root and grew unimpeded.
Incel infiltration
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a community of guys whose consumption of toxic masculine videos and lack of in-person relationships was a defining feature turned out to be a great place to breed incels. The movement was already being co-opted by far-right ideologies, and not enough credible voices were stepping up and offering counterarguments. No one was reality-checking these bros.
Porn isn’t exactly known for its glowing portrayal and treatment of women. Certainly, that is changing as creators like Erika Lust are gaining favour, but there’s still plenty of porn that trains viewers to see women as subordinate sex objects. When men have reached a point of watching porn where they’ve decided to treat it like an addiction, there’s probably a lot of internalised beliefs that need to be examined.
The NoFap community is a vulnerable one, and that vulnerability has been exploited as members are red pilled into believing that women are the problem. Perhaps it is the members with the most hope and love for women that turn to semen retention as a solution.
The medical perspective
As far as we know, masturbation doesn’t cause mental or physical health problems, though many people perceive this to be the case. Often, this stems from cultural conditioning rather than evidence, and masturbatory guilt can cause depression. Porn addiction, however, poses some very real health consequences. Porn floods your brain with dopamine, attacking your reward system — making it harder to feel pleasure over time. So while restricting your, uh, flow may not be very helpful, taking in less porn definitely is.
Very few studies have investigated semen retention, and the ones that have, involved way too few participants to be able to reach any conclusion with certainty. We do see that a couple days of abstinence can increase sperm count and volume, but more than that and we begin to see deformities and degradation of sperm quality.
Dr. Rena Malik explains the medical evidence regarding semen retention on several podcasts, and this one in particular also discusses tantra and yogic influences on the topic. She also alerts viewers to the very real dangers of white-knuckling your way through a No Nut November.
To add a layer of complexity to the mix, men’s health is genuinely in need of some attention. Sperm count has been declining for decades, and we all know that, on average, men live shorter lives than women. With so many environmental pollutants that disrupt hormones, men are facing a whole host of medical problems and are often too embarrassed to ask for help.
These medical problems are often psychologically linked to the idea of what makes a “real man”, and that often gets reduced to testosterone. Simply taking testosterone doesn’t solve these problems and can often make things worse. Testosterone supplementation causes infertility, the opposite of what many men are hoping for, but fortunately, the effects are often reversible when supplementation stops.
Gooning FTW?
Opposite to the NoFap movement, and perhaps as a response to it, the 2020s have seen a huge uptick in the popularity of gooning. While NoFap seeks to completely stop masturbation and porn watching, gooning is about absolutely pickling yourself in porn and masturbatory ecstasy — often without orgasm.
Where NoFap reeks of puritan restraint, gooning relishes in excessive indulgence. While the idea might be off-putting at first, this hopeful substack post inspired me to dream of what gooning could be.
Countless women’s body positivity sources have encouraged women to give themselves permission to enjoy their own self-love. Book off an hour, an evening, a day to devote to masturbation and learning how to satisfy your own sexual impulses, they say. Why shouldn’t we encourage the same for men?
The masculinity crisis
Just as a strict and unjust gender binary has hurt those deemed to be women, it has also hurt those deemed to be men. Though the situation is steadily improving, many adult men today endured childhoods where they were forced to disconnect from their emotions by men who were only allowed to express anger. Then, they were told that even anger was off limits. Restraint has become the gold standard for what makes a “real man”.
Men are not encouraged to feel their sexuality as women are encouraged to do. While the importance of their orgasms is often overemphasised, their pleasure is reduced to a quick release. In sex, just as in career, men are told that they are only worth what they produce.
As the beneficiaries of a crumbling system, rightly or wrongly, they are denied support in adjusting to a more just world. Support groups for men are becoming more common, and that’s a trend we all benefit from, as long as they are rooted in values that respect everyone (themselves included).
But is it just for men?
No, it’s not. Anyone can decide to take a break from sexuality, or just orgasms, if they wish. While there isn’t any evidence that anyone would gain medical benefit by withholding their flow, there still might be some benefits for some. Overcoming strong impulses through conscious discipline can be a very powerful practice, but it’s certainly not a cure-all.
Identifying where you place your energy, and choosing to redirect it in whatever way serves you, can be a very wise move. Sex and orgasms are great and have a ton of benefits. Using your agency to focus on career or personal growth instead is also a valid choice.
Ask yourself why. Oftentimes, forced deprivation is an attempt to gain control over something that feels overwhelming. Where in your life are you struggling? What is it that you hope to gain? There may be other solutions that are better suited to your situation.